Monday morning. Period 3. The topic today is Effective Pedagogy

– Right. Books open…That’s right, get your books out…What do you mean, which books? The revised curriculum, of course, is there any other?..Right, turn to page 35. Effective pedagogy.Pardon? What did you say? You’re already doing this? Don’t be so foolish, of course you’re not. And even if you are, you need to do it better.So, let’s have a look at one that looks quite important. ‘Teaching as Inquiry’.Yes, you’re quite right, Grace, it’s minor sentence…but a major issue, ha ha! Very good, ah, just my little joke.Have a read through the paragraph and then you can ask some questions……

Done? Right then. Thoughts, anyone?

“Miss, do teachers always know what it is important to focus on? What if they’re not subject-specialists? Or if they’re really new?”“What about the range of strategies they need for the Teaching Inquiry bit, Miss? How will they know what to choose? Or why? What happens to the fun, Miss?”“Miss, what if teachers don’t have time to reflect for the Learning Inquiry part? Or don’t know what to reflect on? Or don’t have the key competency of ‘Thinking’ or ‘Managing Self’, Miss?”“What if the teachers are really, really tired, Miss?”

– Well done, class, all good questions. So..

“Miss? Can I ask a question? Who decides that this is the best way forward, Miss?”– Er…“Yeah, and what do the teachers do who work in schools without support for long-term, in-depth PD, Miss?”“Miss, are there any examples to help teachers understand what this will all look like so they can be sure they’re doing it right? Or templates? Something to critique? We got loads for NCEA, didn’t we?”

– Er, yes we did. And no there aren’t. But as soon as some schools have put them on the web we’ll have them.

“But Miss, how will they know what to do?”

Right. That’s enough questions! Just memorise the diagram and get on with it. Now.